I Got a New Puppy! The Impact of Personal, Opinion, and Objective Tweets on a Journalist’s and a News Organization’s Perceived Credibility

ABSTRACTThis experimental study examined the impact of posting different types of tweets on a journalist’s perceived credibility. Three-hundred-and-eighty-seven participants were randomly assigned into one of three groups. One group saw tweets from a journalist that were about the journalist’s personal life, another group saw tweets from the same journalist that were written objectively about news stories, and the third group saw tweets from the same journalist that contained the journalist’s opinion regarding news stories. Participants who read the personal tweets about the journalist’s life rated the journalist highest in perceived credibility. The perceived credibility of the journalist was ranked significantly lower by participants who read the tweets that only contained the journalist’s opinion. Participants were also asked to rate the credibility of the organization for which the journalist worked. The perceived credibility of the organization was rated significantly higher by those who read the obj...